This is actually one of Lin Carter's deities added to the list of Great Old Ones in Lovecraft's mythos.

I had a pretty hard time with trying to figure out an interesting way to show something that is just a big conflagration of "cold flame," beaming out light from the north pole. As a result I just kind of went crazy with little filigrees and ornamentation.

Originally, they were even more tentacally at beginning. Hm, maybe I should have preserved them as I went along. Ah well.

For HPL's stuff I am trying really hard to make a very flat but ethereal iconography for his deities. I want to stay away from bulky, monstrous concept art-like depictions and am sooting for something like personal shrines for each. Each will have their own sigil/glyph, too.

I think you did an excellent job at it, Jason! It reminds me a bit of trying to depict Yog Sothoth- a pile of bubbles which sounds limiting and not particularly sinister. I think you took the right approach in order to make it an interesting painting. The smoke is great, it really has an active roiling feel to it.

Yeah, it's definitely why it took me so long even though it had so little actual depth in it, or sense of distance. But I did learn a ton of new things in the process that I never knew were important.

For the immediate future though I think I may jump back into sketching and drawing large numbers of assorted things. Y'know big ol' sketch dumps and fun stuff like that. I miss the quick and concise free-flow that it gave me. That should recharge my batteries before taking another crack at the old ones in grand scale like I've been aiming for.